Your first act is a choice one you know will affect all that follows. This addiction sets in remarkably quickly, which is testament to the gravity of the game’s opening. In the shower, on the bus, at work, in meetings, over dinner, Dragon Age’s gargantuan world is there, compelling you to return like an addict seeking a hit of relief. It sucks you in from the moment it begins, and, like the best page-turners, leaves an itch in your mind. This is not to say Dragon Age is a poor game – it is superb, in fact. Pause-and-play combat, spell combinations, aggro, tanking, dispelling, buffing, ranged DPS, melee DPS, talents, skills, willpower, constitution, rogues, warriors, mages, humans, dwarfs, elves… for the Dragon Age fan these terms are as familiar as the simple act of clicking on a line of unspoken dialogue. It is a game designed for the mouse and keyboard interface of the PC, and for PC fans familiar with the genre’s jargon. It is a game that reeks of decade-old PC mechanics, both good and bad. It is the spiritual successor to BioWare’s own Baldur’s Gate series, which last saw a release in 2001 with Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. It is a game that modern day BioWare fans, schooled on the Canadian studio’s skill in making console RPGs accessible without sacrifice, may have imagined as Mass Effect in Oblivion’s clothes. This is Dragon Age: Origins, BioWare’s latest RPG epic. For them, top down camera angles, text-based dialogue and spells and swords and rings and Dwarven chainmail are as welcoming as a camp fire set in an elven forest. Not for them are trendy science fiction shotguns and power wheels mapped to controller shoulder buttons. Not for them are cinematic camera angles and film grain effects.
Not for them is the third-person cover-based shooting of Mass Effect. It is a step in the wrong direction for some, but, for a chosen few, it is a step in the right direction. It is a 100 hour epic for those with the time and patience to experience it.
It is an old school fantasy RPG for old school fantasy RPG fans.
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